The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposite ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. – F.Scott Fitzgerald

All behaviour consists of opposites…learn to see things backward, inside out, and upside down. – Lao Tzu

The Green Tortoise bus line operating with about a dozen old vehicles, made scheduled runs up and down the US West Coast and into the interior at about half the price of the Greyhound. Its owner Gardner Kent gave up trying to compete with Greyhound on price in the low fare business. Instead of hopelessly trying to reduce the journey time he did the contrary—he increased the journey duration – six rather than four days! He used the extra two days to build more ‘ fun’ into the trip Рgames, walks in the woods, fishing, etc. His business multiplied and he was able to take over
another bus service. His idea, a product of paradoxical contrarian thinking, produced extraordinary results. His fun trip strategy led him to a new segment, a niche opportunity made possible by the socioeconomic changes that turned travel into a pleasure industry.

Paradoxical thinking involves, among other things, switching to the opposite of what is conventional.

One of the most brilliant displays of paradoxical thinking is by scientist Faraday in the 1830’s. He had observed that a current of electricity passingthrough a wire could have the effect of causing the magnetized needle of a compass to deflect, that is, move in a rotational direction when a compass was located close to the wire. This was the basis of his invention of the electric motor. Faraday did not stop with this. He took a mental leap Рa gigantic one as it turned out. He reasoned that if an electric current could make magnets to move, maybe the reverse could also happen. Could a moving magnet cause electricity to flow? He found that it did. Thus was born the generator.

Typically our NRI relatives buy fancy things including gadgets at duty free shops elsewhere in the world on their way to India. The Government of Philippines had a similar situation at hand. Millions of their countrymen and women work all over the world. Noticing the huge gifts visiting Philippines were seen carrying across the arrival hall at Manila airport, the Government opened duty free shops at that airport so that NRP’s could buy gifts after their arrival home!! At the Manila shop one could buy even tractors. This shop has catapulted that country into the fourth largest seller
of such goods in the world.

The Philippines government reasoned that no matter what the world is doing one may gain enormously by doing the opposite – paradoxical thinking. Opposites are everywhere. Yet we hardly stop to think about these omnipresent opposites. Because opposites are in the background we do not see them. To be creative, we have to pull opposites out of the background and put them in the foreground where they will be clearly visible. It is said that a fish does not know that water exists – because the fish takes water for granted. We are like fish – we see so many opposites that we
take them for granted and do not notice them anymore. If we notice and handle opposites imaginatively we could all become creative.

Let us look at some commonplace ‘opposites’. Is a straight line the opposite of a curve? Of course, one may say. Yet a scientist will tell you that a curve is but an infinite number of straight lines. Is a square the opposite of a circle? ‘Obviously,’ is the answer. Yet it can be proved that both are polygons. If you keep adding sides to a square it turns it into a hexagon, an octagon and so on. The more sides you add the more it comes to resemble a circle!

The two opposite things are deep down the same thing. Can we learn paradoxical thinking? Of course, we can. Here is how.

Be open in your thinking. Openness, courage and curiosity are essential. Be particularly aware of the so-called absurd ideas floating in your mind. Note them down, dwell on them, play with them refine them. Openness also means you are open to learning new subjects unconnected with your profession. Listen, explore, be curious. Pay more attention to things you
have been ignoring or taking for granted. When you look at something, say a gadget, visualize how they would look and function if it were different in shape, size, etc. Ask yourself, can I change this into the exact opposite? Look at the rug on the floor. How would it be if we had rugs designed for the roof? Look at the lights on the roof and ask, how would it be if we had
lights on the floor? Recall that such products exist.

It pays to be sceptical. The more sceptical you are the better a paradox thinker you will be. You do not take for granted what others accept as a matter of routine. Examine customs, practices, rituals, conventions, fashions, etc.

Paradoxical thinking is one of eight skills related to intelligence. The others are memory, logic, judgement, perception, intuition, reason, and imagination. Paradox is perhaps the least used of these skills. It involves the ability to reverse, manipulate, combine, synthesize opposites.

In their path-breaking book Built to last РThe successful habits of visionary companies, authors James Collins and Jerry Poras write that companies that survive are those, among other things, that do not oppress themselves with the ‘tyranny of the or’ Рthe rational view that cannot easily accept paradox, that cannot live with two seemingly contradictory forces at the same time. The ‘tyranny of the or’ pushes people to believe that things must be either A or B, but not both. The authors have demonstrated that organizations that have liberated themselves from this tyranny go on to
grow exponentially and are seen as extremely innovative.

One last example: Is it possible to make a car that is as exquisite as a BMW or Mercedes Benz but does not cost a bomb? Quality and affordability – a paradox is what many thought but not in a Japanese company that came out with the Lexus which was a great example of paradoxical thinking.

KR Ravi is also South Asia’s first Dr. Edward De Bono certified public trainer in Lateral Thinking.

“What an apt label for a bunch of file-pushers ‘The India Fossil Service’. I happened to visit the Indian consulate in the prime AAA category real estate in Singapore.

The moment I stepped inside, the shabby interiors made me realize I was dealing with a third world country. The consulate exists in a typical Indian colonial type building with lots of chips in plaster and torn carpets. The library was a clutter of books. Even the newspapers were six days old!”

A top corporate honcho once told me that when interviewing a candidate for a position in his company he made his initial judgment about the merits of the person by taking a close look at the state of polish of his or her shoes!

What these instances have in common is a much underutilized psychological and
management concept “the broken window”. This concept had its origin in the 1990’s when there was a decrease in violent crimes in the USA. There were a number of straightforward reasons for this decline—crackdown on cocaine trade, economic recovery, aging of the population, etc. However there was no consensus on the reasons for the decline of crime in New York. None of these favourable conditions were evident in that city at least not to the extent that the decline could be explained. It was then that criminologists James Wilson and George Kelling argued that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the
street on which it faces, sending signals that ‘anything goes’. In a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder and aggressive behaviour are all equivalent to the broken window—invitations to more serious crime. Thus, they say, if a neighbourhood cannot prevent a person from eve-teasing, the eve-teaser may reason that it is even less likely to call the police to identify him or to interfere if he decides to mug a passerby.

This is evident in towns and cities and offices all over our country. The Singapore
Consulate example is really a “showcase” of our offices and public places all over the
country. Anything goes, or the Hindi equivalent Chalta hai, is really the starting point of an epidemic. Who can deny that the rot is evident everywhere in our country? The conclusion is that a small act of neglect or casualness can start an epidemic and affect an entire country. The moment that we do not set right a broken window we are initiating a torrent of consequences. In the mid-nineties the New York transit authorities hired Kelling, the criminologist referred to above, and he in turn advised them to try out the ‘broken window’ theory in practice. They obliged and asked the subway director David Gunn to oversee the multibillion dollar rebuilding of the subway system. Gunn decided to first stamp out graffiti scrawled on the cars. Many commentators advised him to concentrate on the big issues—crime, safety, etc and not to worry about ‘small things’ like graffiti. Worrying about graffiti at a time when the entire system was about to collapse was, they said, like scrubbing the decks of the Titanic. But the broken window theory told Gunn otherwise. He felt that at the outset the battle against graffiti was to be fought. Without that all the management reforms and changes would not help. Gunn drew up a plan of action to clean up the system line by line and train by train. He told his colleagues—no car would go out into the system unless all graffiti was removed, come what may, Every time vandals messed up a car, the graffiti would be erased till the message went home— graffiti is out for ever! Over a period of time the subway became squeaky clean. Thereafter the theory was applied to other aspects of the subway with remarkable results.

In a management context we have lessons to learn from this theory. An epidemic in the sense of deterioration in the functioning of a company can be reversed by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment. You do not have to rectify and immediately solve big problems. Start with small ones. A top executive told me that he made sure small grievances of his employees were attended to with speed. This he tells me has created the impression of a caring management which his company anyway is.

 

God is in details.

But the issue is that he is convinced it is in the small matters that his employees assess him. In my workshops on innovation I am asked how to sell one’s innovative ideas to top management. I cite the example of one of the participants of an earlier workshop who, fired by his lateral thinking skill, rushed to his MD and told him that the company ought to get out of their business since he saw no future in that line of activity. This, he said, was his ‘strategic’ creative input. Needless to say, he was asked to mind his business which was to arrange travel tickets for his bosses. I then advised him to start with small innovations where the risk element was negligible. He followed my advice. He is now the Manager Innovation for his company!

 

It used to be said about Margaret Thatcher that one leadership trait of hers that stood out was her ability and willingness to take fast decisive action on relatively small issues. As they say in a different context, ‘God is in the small details.’